Samantha, Day 1

Day 1

I started off the day with a large bowl of oatmeal and a mug of black tea, both sweetened with sugar. As soon as I tasted the tea I knew it was a giant mistake. I will never buy dollar store tea again. I am a huge tea drinker and so I wanted to include tea in my budget to prevent caffeine withdrawal. This was $1.58 that I could have spent much better elsewhere. I won’t even drink this stuff so it was a total waste of 9% of my budget right off the bat. Live and learn!

At lunchtime I found myself sitting at a White Spot restaurant drinking glasses of water while everyone else ordered meals off the menu. This was unplanned – I hadn’t realized that the outing was going to involve going for lunch. I used to be in this position when socializing with friends as a teenager. I was overcome by many memories of this exact same scenario. It was a sobering reminder of the isolation and “otherness” that I experienced growing up as a result of our limited finances.

For dinner, I had rice with lentils, and a bit of onion and garlic sautéed in water. It was filling and edible, but not exactly satisfying. I was craving something sweet afterward and all I could have was a glass of sugar water. I won’t be doing that again. I really wanted some fruit.

I developed a bad headache and was exhausted so I went to bed early. My body really missed having fresh food today.